my mom, 4 years into my transition: "you know one of our neighbors' kids went from they/them to she/her. there's just so many nerdy boys who changed into trans women... i'm just saying~ there's something in the water"
oh she's ~so~ close
reversing cause and effect would be huge for her
"nerdy boys" oh you mean male-assumed people who are made fun of for not being masculine enough
"nerdy boys" oh you mean people who spend a lot of time engaging with media like fantasy, scifi, and superheroes: genres defined by a theme of imagining alternate ways of being a person, where we are not bound by the same rules as in our own lives, sometimes even questioning the rules themselves
"nerdy boys" oh you mean being interested in/confined to hobbies where we spend time by ourselves, free of/away from the expectations and perceptions of others
nerdhood was the closest thing to a safe haven a girl could find operating a boy mecha